Books, podcasts, and I am not actually stalking Tansy Rayner Roberts

I’m not! Because that would be creepy, and also illegal, and also it would involve a higher level of effort than I’m accustomed to.

But when I was at ChicagoTARDIS, there was a certain amount of SHOCK and DISAPPROVAL when I said that I didn’t listen to the Galactic Suburbia podcast. I was given to understand that it’s my duty as an Australian feminist genre fan to give it a burl.

So I downloaded the last two episodes of 2012, and gave them a listen this week — well, I’m still partway through the November 22 episode — and, yes, everyone was right. This podcast is clever, informative, highly relevant to my interests, and I’ve been remiss in not listening to it before.

In fairness, I only listened to my very first podcast just recently. And my second. And now my third, fourth and fifth. (I’ve stopped counting now.) There came a point a few years back where I stopped listening to the radio because the announcers were all inane — yes, even on Triple J, hallowed youth station though it is — and technology enabled me to choose my own music. I figured that a podcast would be similarly irritating background noise.

Yes, I was wrong. For my morning commute, when I want some kind of mental stimulation but am too sleepy to read, podcasts are perfect. Of course, my commute is 20 minutes and most podcasts seem to go for about an hour, but, you know, we’re coping.

And a good thing, too, because now there’s a new podcast in town, and her name is Verity.

Verity is a feminist Doctor Who podcast, and frankly, a ridiculous number of the contributors are my friends. I listened to the first episode yesterday, and it was great. It was positive and affectionate while acknowledging faults, and the breadth of opinion meant that I got to agree with someone most of the time. It was a very nice way to spend a couple of train journeys.

Now, both of these podcasts feature Tansy Rayner Roberts, whose short story collection Love and Romanpunk has been sitting on my bookshelf for, oh, a year and a half. And she has a fantastic essay in Chicks Unravel Time, and she said clever things on panels at Continuum last year!

Then, on Wednesday, just as I was beginning my great podcast adventure, one of my BFFs tweeted about reading and loving Love and Romanpunk. (She reviews it here — I studied in the same Classics department, as does my brother now, although I’m fairly sure she’s the only one who got to design collapsible boats in class.)

Well, that was it. Clearly I had no choice but to read it. So I spent the second day of the year lying on the couch, absorbed in “Julia Agrippina’s Secret Family Bestiary”, which effectively hooked me for the rest of the stories. If anyone else looks at the Julio-Claudians and sees literal monsters, this is totally the book for you.

Jan 4: download the new issue of Apex Magazine. (I subscribed. You should, too!) And look, there’s a reprint of Roberts’ story “The Patrician”, from the same collection!

I am not stalking Tansy Rayner Roberts, but it’s possible that her works are stalking me.

I’m actually okay with this, since one of my goals for 2013 is to read more Australian authors. I went a bit overboard working out reading stats for 2012, and one of the results was that, of the 141 books I read, only 19 were by Australians. That’s pretty shameful. So yes, for 2013 we’re reading more Australians, more short stories, more in general. NOT THAT IT’S A COMPETITION. (It’s totally a competition.)

The problem is, there are so many good books! Here’s my to-read pile:

So many books…

Most of these were purchased in the US, and I’m still working through them. And this is without factoring in the ebooks I haven’t read yet!

I really need one of those jobs where people pay me to read. But, like, books that I choose, not that my boss chooses for me.